1Q92
by The Threat
Summary: After the events of 'The Doctor In Saint-Tropez', the Tardis crew finds itself in a twisted version of Earth.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: based on characters owned by BBC, and situations created by Haruki Murakami. The narrator of this story, and the character Maen, are both mine.

* * *

Most of the corridors looked the same. Grey, with those circles on the walls. If there was any practical or aesthetic reason for it, it wasn't obvious. But eventually, I found a part that looked older. I knew it was old, because the walls were made of large stones, similar to what they used to built castles of. Not an unfair comparison either, since this part was lit up by torches.  
"What is this? Did we enter Sauron's castle."  
I had to hear that voice to be reminded that I wasn't alone. I was accompanied by Maen, whom the Doctor and I picked up on Coruscant. Which reminded me, did all this really happen today? Our adventure at the galaxy far away, the problem in Tel Aviv, the aliens in Saint-Tropez? It seemed like a lot more than a week had gone by. But it was all in one day?  
"Are you alright?" Maen asked me.  
I shook my head: "Sorry, I have the bad habit of letting my mind wander."  
"Can you tell me why an advanced machine like this would have a castle inside of it?" she asked me.  
"It's the first time I see this myself." I replied, "You should really ask the Doctor about this."  
Maen shrugged: "Remind me to do that."  
We followed these walls, until we reached a door. It was a large wooden double-door, almost exactly like one of those medieval castles. As soon as we were within five steps of it, the doors opened on their own.  
"Automatic doors." I remarked, "A bit anachronistic, isn't it?"  
"Bit what?" Maen asked.  
I had to assume that either her galaxy has no word for anachronism, or she genuinely doesn't know what it means.  
"Never mind." I said, and started toward those doors.

What we found behind the doors was incredible. The room itself looked like a church. I couldn't be sure, but I would swear I heard the squeaking of a bat as we stepped insider. In the middle of this room, there was what looked like a fountain, with one pole on all four of its corners. But instead of water, there was a large orb, made out of the same stones as the castle. And was that an "8" that was engraved on that orb, or was it my imagination?  
"What do you suppose this is?" Maen asked me.  
"Some kind of monument, maybe." I thought out loud.  
Maen walked around it, trying to take a closer look. She stopped at one of the poles. I noticed that her eyes were fixed at the bottom of the pole.  
"What's wrong?" I asked her.  
"This one is loose." Maen replied, "Look."  
To demonstrate her point, she grabbed hold of the pole, and pulled it out. What neither of us expected to see, was a light coming from the the very spot where it once stood. Slowly, I approached that same spot.  
"I don't understand." Maen said, "Why would he cover light like this?"  
"Every old house has its mysteries." I replied.  
Even though I have always been told to never look into light directly, I couldn't help being curious about where that light came from. So I put my head over the hole, looking directly into the light. Though it was bright, it didn't cause any pain to my eyes. This became the least of my worries when I felt a quake. As soon as that happened, the stone orb began moving. It somehow split itself into two, the two bits moving apart from each other. In fact, it looked more like the orb was an eye, opening up.  
Maen exclaimed, the panic audible in her voice: "I was joking about Sauron's castle."  
The thought occurred to me that this was the second time she mentioned that name. I wanted to ask who or what Sauron was, but as soon as I looked at the "eye", I forgot all about that. A man was projected from the crack in the orb. He looked old, sharp-faced and white-haired, almost like a professor. He held the lapels of his jacket, giving him a somewhat smug appearance. The man disappeared, only to be replaced by another old man, who had darker hair, and a friendlier face, a typical grandfather look.  
"Who are those guys?" Maen asked.  
I sighed. What made her think I was an expert, when everything we saw was as new to me as it was her. I was about to ask her that, when this man was changed again. But before the image could change, it had already disappeared, when the quake from before returned. Only this time it was worse, as neither Maen or I could stay on our feet this time. As I fell, I saw myself getting closer to the edge of this monument. I could only just feel my face hitting the hard rock, and everything turned to black, just before my brain received the signal indicating I'm feeling pain.


	2. Chapter 2

Though my eye-lids were still closed, I could still feel light trying to burn my eyes. Slowly, I opened them. When they were open, I saw the head of blond thirty-something woman. It took me a while to recognize her, but then I remembered. This was Emma, whom the Doctor and I had picked up in Tel Aviv.  
"You're awake." she said.  
"No need to sound so disappointed." I replied.  
"I was hoping you would rest a little longer." she explained, "That's a nasty bump you got there. It needs some time to heal."  
"What were you doing at the Eye of Harmony, anyway?" I heard the voice, but didn't see the face it belonged to.  
I had to quickly scan the room, in order to find the man who just spoke to me. The man who called himself the Doctor.  
"Eye of what?" I asked.  
The Doctor widened his eyes: "You didn't know what that was?"  
I shook my head.  
"That answers that question." the Doctor said.  
"What's this all about?" I asked.  
Emma started: "He thought you were..."  
"We had begun speculating about why you would even want to be near the Eye of Harmony." the Doctor interrupted her, "The possibility that you were trying to sabotage the Tardis came up."  
I should feel insulted that either one of these two would even think that, but then I remembered something else: "What is this... Eye of Harmony?"  
"Remember when I told you the Tardis draws its energy from the universe itself?" the Doctor asked, to which I nodded, "That's what the Eye of Harmony does."  
"It's a power source?" I asked.  
"You can say that."  
Then it makes sense why he would think Maen and I, or anyone, would try to sabotage it. When that thought came to me, I asked: "Where's Maen?"  
"She's fine." Emma told me, "She's in the other room, resting. As should you be."  
"Doc." I turned to the Doctor again, "What happened, exactly?"  
He smiled: "I had set the Tardis' controls for England. But because the Eye was open, it caused some tremors as we traveled."  
"It's more than just tremors, Doctor." Emma interjected, "You said it yourself, the instruments' readings were going haywire, as if they didn't know what they were supposed to be measuring."  
"Thank you, Emma." the Doctor replied, though he didn't sound like he meant it.  
"Eh... should I be worried?" I asked.  
The Doctor hesitated to answer: "The only way the Time Lords could think of to draw power directly from the universe, is by use of a black hole."  
"Yes. I remember you explaining something along those lines before." I said.  
"But black holes are points in space where the laws of physics seize to exist." the Doctor further explained, "So anything, as absurd as they may seem, could happen."  
I needed a moment to let that sink in before I asked: "And did anything happen?"  
"Don't worry about that." Emma replied.  
"I didn't ask you." I told her.  
The Doctor sighed: "I haven't noticed anything if it did."  
"You really don't know any limits, do you?" Emma asked him, "He has a light concussion, he shouldn't worry about such things."  
"He deserves to know where he stands on these matters." the Doctor argued.  
"He needs rest." Emma countered.  
"If you two keep arguing, I won't be getting much of it." I reasoned with them.  
Emma had to keep herself from bursting in anger.  
"Emma, maybe Maen needs you to check up on her." the Doctor suggested.  
"I already did." she reminded him.  
"She has a concussion too, remember?" the Doctor said, "She needs just as much attention as he does."  
She had no counterpoint with the Doctor's argument, so she got up to leave the room. As soon as she was out the door, the Doctor took a seat next to my bed.  
"Something else you wanted to talk about?" I asked him.  
"If you didn't want to sabotage the Tardis, why were you at the Eye of Harmony?"  
I told the Doctor the whole story. About how I wanted to explore the Tardis, and just happened upon this medieval decor. As well as how neither of us knew what fiddling with it could mean.  
"I suppose I should be cross with you for this." the Doctor said, "But that would be hypocrit on my part."  
I smiled, happy to know that the Doctor understood this much.  
"Doc, there's something else."  
Intrigued, the Doctor looked at me: "What might that be?"  
"When the Eye opened, it... projected something." I explained.  
"Ah?" the Doctor seemed genuinely interested, "What did it project?"  
I described the two men that I saw. The one that looked like a professor, and the one that looked like my grandfather.  
"I see." was all the Doctor said. Though the pause he left in between my explanation and his reaction didn't escape my notice.  
"Who are those men?" I asked.  
"They are..." the Doctor stopped himself from finishing his own sentence, "... nothing to worry about just yet."  
"Doc, I'm not an idiot." I said, "I can tell when there's something you're not telling me."  
The Doctor snickered: "I don't mean to insult your intelligence. But as Emma said, you still have a concussion. If I tried explaining this to you now, it may be too much for you to understand."  
I sighed: "Promise me you'll tell me the whole story, next time I ask?"  
"If you're in a better condition, sure." the Doctor replied.  
I dropped myself on my bed. The Doctor will tell me when my condition has improved. But who is usually the judge of that? That's usually a doctor. Was he trying to make an excuse so he won't have to explain anything?  
"Have I ever lied to you?" he asked me, clearly aware of how I felt.  
"No." was my honest answer, "But you haven't told me everything either."  
The Doctor laughed: "For me to tell you everything about me, is tantamount to telling you the complete plot of every Dixon Hill novel, before you read the novels for yourself."  
I suppose he had a point there. A novel usually builds up the plot, lets the mystery play out, and allows its audience to figure a thing or two out for themselves. I suppose the same can be said about people in general. They can tell you a lot about themselves, but in a way there's more fun in finding it all out for yourself. Even more so, when you realize that people don't always tell you the truth about themselves. So I took the Doctor's words in, and followed Emma's advice to rest.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke to the sound of a scream. Since the scream struck a high note, I deduced it must have come from a woman. So it was either Emma or Maen that was screaming.  
"What's going on?" I heard the Doctor ask outside my room.  
"I don't know." I recognized Maen's voice, so that answered my question.  
I jumped out of my bed and ran to the door. I opened it, and saw the Doctor and Maen in the corridor.  
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked.  
"I was, until I heard a scream." I replied.  
"Where is Emma?" the Doctor asked, after which he called out her name.  
A muffled "here" sounded through the corridor, which the three of us followed. A few doors away from my room, we found the room which Emma had taken as her own. She was in a bed, sitting up, as if she just woke up from a nightmare.  
"What's going on?" the Doctor asked her.  
"Nothing." Emma assured him, "I just had a bad dream."  
I sighed. I'll admit I have had nightmares before in my life, but I never screamed everyone awake like that.  
"What about?" Maen asked.  
Emma scoffed: "That's not your concern."  
"Dreams mean more than people think they do." Maen argued.  
"Oh, don't tell me you're one of those people." Emma countered.  
"But she has a point." the Doctor brought up, "It must have been an intense dream if it causes you to wake others up like that."  
Maen, like me, had bumped her head before, so if she was still wearing her clothes, I understood why. But the Doctor was still wearing his clothes too, making me wonder whether he was even asleep himself."  
Emma sighed: "If you must know, it started nicely. There were these little people, with sing-song voices, who talked to me like I was still a child."  
"That's starting nicely?" I questioned.  
Emma laughed: "It just made me feel like a little girl again. At least it did until..."  
She hesitated to go on. The Doctor tried to pursuade her to go on: "Until what?"  
"They started to ask weird questions." she answered, "They wanted to know who you three were."  
"Us?" Maen and I answered in unison.  
"Their questions made no sense." she went on, "They asked why they can't see what's in your heads, why your brains act so differently, and what the Tardis is."  
Maen, the Doctor and I exchanged glances.  
"When I told them I didn't know, they..." she hesitated to answer, "They started to show me these horrible... horrible images."  
"Alright, you don't have to go into detail now." the Doctor said.  
As she spoke, I noticed something lying under her pillow. I reached out to pick it up. Emma started yelling at me, but I didn't listen. What I picked up, was a red leaf. From the smell and feel of it, I thought it came from a rose.  
"How did that get there?" Emma seemed to agree with me now, it shouldn't be there.  
"Don't you keep this Tardis clean?" Maen complained to the Doctor.  
The Doctor didn't answer. Instead, he looked at the leaf, and took it in his own hands.  
"Odd." The Doctor said.  
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." I said.  
"No, that's not what I meant." the Doctor replied.  
"Why is this odd?" Maen asked him.  
"I have heard a story about something that happened during the first world war." the Doctor explained, "A train, loaded with soldiers, was riding through a tunnel. But once it left the tunnel, all of the soldiers were dead."  
"Dead?" Emma was surprised to hear that.  
"How?" I asked.  
"Somehow, they were choked to death." the Doctor explained, "Choked, by having leafs like these stuck in their throats."  
I could almost feel Emma's shiver, who then asked: "Am I going to be killed?"  
"I don't think so." the Doctor replied, "One leaf won't kill you."  
"Why did you bring it up then?" Emma asked.  
"Because the mysterious circumstances in which this appeared, it reminded me of how these men died." the Doctor explained.  
"But they're not connected at all?" Maen asked.  
"I hope not." the Doctor replied.  
"And here I was thinking that Doctors are much better at making patients feel better." I remarked.  
"I'm only saying that you shouldn't worry just yet." the Doctor explained.  
"Then when should we?" Maen asked.  
The Doctor didn't answer.


	4. Chapter 4

As we left the room, Maen and I headed back to our rooms. But as we were going, the Doctor himself headed toward the console room. It could have been just my imagination, but he had that look on his face. The look that told me he knew more than he was letting on.  
"Doc, what is wrong?" I asked.  
"I'm not sure." he said.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Maen asked, "You've been pretty vague tonight."  
The Doctor looked at her, then back to where he was going: "There have been stories."  
"What kind of stories?" I asked.  
"About creatures, similar to Time Lords, to whom time is like a bucket of plasticine."  
"A bucket of what?" Maen didn't understand the term.  
"It's like clay, which you can mash to form whatever you want, whenever you want." I explained.  
"A rather crude description, but yes." the Doctor said.  
"So are you saying there are things out there who can... play with time?" Maen wondered.  
"They're just stories." the Doctor reminded her, "But even mythologies have some basis of truth."  
"Don't I know it." I replied, being reminded of some of my earlier adventures.

As we got closer to the console room, a loud knocking became more audible.  
"Suddenly, I heard a tapping." the Doctor said, much to Maen's puzzlement.  
As soon as we arrived at the console room, the Doctor ran to the other side as fast as he could. Someone was knocking on the main doors? How was that possible? According to the Doctor, there was this sort of filter that made the Tardis unnoticeable by anyone.  
The Doctor opened the door: "Hello? How can I help..."  
"Are you the owner of this box?" a voice, that sounded cockney, spoke.  
"I am indeed." the Doctor replied, "Why? Is this a no parking zone?"  
"I have here a warrant." the voice replied.  
A warrant? That sounded serious.  
"Why is that?" the Doctor asked, "These boxes have been decommissioned, so I'm not using it illegally."  
"I'm only following orders." the voice replied.  
"Alright." the Doctor said, "Come right in."  
Whoever that voice belonged to, its owner walked in. As soon as he entered, not only did I recognize that uniform of his to belong to the police, I also saw how he reacted to the fact that what looked like a box on the outside, was as large as a house on the inside. He stood there, frozen stiff, eyes wide open, and skin getting paler by the second. He screamed, then turned around and ran.  
"What's the matter with him?" Maen asked.  
"Try not to understand Earthlings." I told her, "I'm from the planet myself, and I can't begin to understand them."  
"Well, that should take care of him, for now." the Doctor said, "Come along."  
The Doctor stepped out, and Maen and I followed.

Once outside, the Doctor locked the door behind us. He then turned around and shifted his head.  
"What are you looking for?" I asked him.  
"Anything that doesn't belong." he said.  
"Like ourselves?" Maen asked.  
I looked around. Looking at the dress code, the cars, this city's idea of night-life, and the lack of any cell-phones, I deduced we weren't in my own time.  
"When are we?" I wondered.  
"We're still in 1992." the Doctor replied, "Because of what you two did, I could only transport us through space."  
That would explain why I could see the Big Ben. We were no longer in Saint-Tropez.  
"Is that a Tardis over there?" Maen pointed at something.  
I looked too. She pointed at the remains of something blue, which was inside a glass box, displayed in the center of a small park. There was a plaque that read "Remembering the incident of 1978." Only the Doctor and I knew what that was about. This prompted the Doctor to tell Maen about our little adventure that happened... Two days ago, as far as I was concerned, but fourteen years ago for all the Earthlings. As he explained this, a man walked along, throwing a newspaper in a nearby bin. I picked it up, and took a look in it. I didn't look at the headline, as it probably referenced events I don't remember anyway. Still, just looking at the front page, where it said the date was August 10, 1992, and the paper in question looked brand new, it was still hard to believe that I was this far back in time.  
"I don't believe this!" the Doctor shouted.  
I turned to him: "What's wrong?"  
"What's wrong?" the Doctor looked at me with wide eyes, "Can't you read?"  
I wasn't even looking at the headline, so of course I didn't notice. I read it out loud: "First colony to arrive on Mars... Huh?"  
"That's not supposed to happen until decades from now." the Doctor said.  
"Would these people even want to go to Mars?" Maen asked, "I mean, if what you said is true, and people from Mars have attacked Earth on several occasions..."  
"You wouldn't believe how relentless the humans of this planet can be." the Doctor explained to her, "The can break their limbs on eight places, and yet they would return to those places every chance they've got."  
I rolled my eyes as I heard him say that. How could he be so optimistic about my people? But as my eyes rolled, I was looking up. In doing so, I noticed something. I couldn't be sure, so I looked up into the sky. The night-sky looked normal at first, in so far that it can be considered normal to see so few stars in the sky (what with London's city-lights). Still, at the very least the moon was visible, as was... something else. Something that shouldn't be, but yet it was.  
"Doc, remember you asked us to look for something that doesn't belong?" I asked.  
"Yes." the Doctor replied, "Why?"  
I pointed at the sky, and the Doctor looked. I couldn't see the look on his face, as I was still looking at what I was pointing, but I can imagine what expression must have formed on his face. In the sky, next to the white disc of the moon, was something else. At first I thought it was an optical illusion, but there was nothing to indicate that. Next to the moon was another disc. Its size was smaller, its color slightly different, and the craters had a slightly different form, but undoubtedly, it was a second moon.  
"What? What's wrong with those moons?" Maen asked.  
I crinched as she spoke, but the Doctor could explain to her before I could say anything: "Maen, this planet has only one moon. It always had."  
I looked at her. Her mouth formed an "O", as she realized the problem.


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor picked one random passer-by, tapped him on the shoulder, waited for him to turn around, then asked: "Excuse me, why is there a second moon?"  
The passer-by looked into the sky, then back the Doctor, upon which he slowly backed away for two seconds, then started running, as though he couldn't get away from us fast enough.  
"What's wrong with him?" Maen wondered.  
"He can't see the second moon." the Doctor explained.  
"What?" I scoffed, "How do you miss something like that?"  
"Well, you have been able to see things that others can't." the Doctor answered, "I'm a Time Lord, my brain already works on a different level."  
He then pointed at Maen: "And you are trained to have a strong mind, so of course you can see it."  
"Funny." Maen said, "It sounds a little like what Emma said earlier, about the Little People."  
"What do you mean?" I asked her.  
"Remember? They asked her why our brains are so vastly different from hers." Maen answered.  
"Yes..." the Doctor agreed, "It does seem that way."  
The Doctor had that look on his face again.  
"Don't tell me." I said, "You think those Little People and that second moon are connected?"  
"Only one way to find out, is there?" the Doctor said, as he started walking.  
"What does he mean?" Maen asked me.  
I shrugged: "We do have his Tardis, which can take us anywhere in space."  
"He wants to visit that second moon?" Maen understood.  
"Looks like it." I said, and followed after the Doctor, as did Maen.

After our short walk back to the Tardis, the Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. Looking past him, I could see why. There was a white-and-blue tape that surrounded the Tardis. Looking at the tape, I could recognize one of the words on it saying "police". What further cemented the problem, was the fact that at every corner that had been taped, there was a policeman.  
"What's wrong?" Maen asked, "It's just lint."  
"You don't understand." the Doctor told her, "It's a special tape, used by local law enforcement, telling us we can't cross."  
"You mean they set up a barrier that we can't get through?"  
"Technically we can just walk through." the Doctor explained, "But not without drawing other people's attention."  
"Strange." I realized, "We never had that problem before. Why now?"  
"I don't know, and I don't like it." the Doctor answered, then held his hand out to me, "You still got your phone?"  
Oh right, I was probably the only person in 1992 that had a cell-phone. I took it out of my pocket and gave it to the Doctor. Immediately, he dialed a number, brought it to his ear, and waited for someone to answer.  
"Brigadier?" he said, but judging from the worried look on his face, he didn't hear what he was expecting.  
"What's wrong?" I asked.  
"It says the number is not in service." the Doctor replied.  
"Who were you calling?" Maen wondered.  
"An old friend." the Doctor answered, "But the operator claims that number never existed."  
That was weird indeed. But, thinking about it, the Doctor said "brigadier" earlier, as if he expected to hear our friend from 1978. If so, I remembered he was a member of that secret organization. Maybe he just moved, changed his phone number as a result, and being part of that organization, he could make it look as if his old number never existed.  
"What about UNIT?" I suggested, "Even if they can't reach the Brigadier, they can at least call the cops off."  
"It's worth the try." the Doctor agreed, and dialed the number.  
After he dialed, he listened, waiting for an answer. After five seconds, he shut my phone off.  
"What's wrong?" I asked.  
"It's taking them too long to answer." the Doctor replied.  
I raised my brows: "You were calling for only five seconds."  
"For UNIT, letting the phone ring for longer than one second is unacceptable." the Doctor said.  
I could only take the Doctor's word for it, since UNIT was still somewhat new to me.  
"If it takes them five seconds, then it can't be UNIT on the other end." the Doctor further explained.  
"What are you guys saying?" Maen asked, "You can't do anything?"  
"I didn't say that." the Doctor replied, "There are some... less official channels that I can use, but that's a bit riskier than anything else I've tried."  
The Doctor dialed another number. This time, it took the person on the other end longer than five seconds.  
"Who are you calling?" I asked.  
"If she's awake, Emma." was his answer.  
"How long will that take?" Maen wondered.  
"Since the phone is in the console room, and she is in another room... she might not hear it ring at all."  
Judging from that face the Doctor made, somebody answered, but he still didn't get what he expected. Instead of saying anything, the Doctor lowered the phone, then pressed the speaker button.  
"Yes, I know what you are called." a high-pitched voice sounded, although it sounded like an adult man mimicking a child's voice.  
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.  
"I'm one of Emma's Little People. Good evening" it replied, "But you can call me... Toby, if you like."  
"How did he get into the Tardis?" Maen questioned.  
"That would be one of our many capabilities." Toby replied, "We can do so much more."  
"I have a better question." the Doctor interrupted, "Why are you in there?"  
"Because we are very interested in this vessel of yours." Toby replied, "Where can we find one of our own?"  
"That would be... quite impossible." the Doctor answered.  
"I see." Toby said. He didn't sound disappointed, almost as though he expected this.  
"Doctor!" Emma's voice sounded.  
"Emma?" All three of us spoke in unison.  
"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked.  
"What is going on?" we heard her shout, "What have you done to these little people?"  
"What have I done?"  
"How about now?" Toby's voice returned, "Can you tell us how to get our own vessel?"  
"I told you, even if I wanted you to have one, I can't tell you." the Doctor explained.  
"Most unfortunate." Toby said, shortly before the connection broke.  
"What was that all about?" I wondered.  
"More importantly, what did Emma mean by "what have you done to these little people"?" Maen questioned.  
"Oi, you lot!" I looked in the direction where that came from.  
One of the cops had spotted us, and started toward us, placing his hand on his gun. As soon as he approached us, another cop followed his example.  
"I think we just got more attention than we wanted." I said.


	6. Chapter 6

We started running away as those cops closed in on us. Which was easier said than done, as more and more seemed to move in on us. As we ran away from the Tardis, we ran into a cop car, of which its occupants immediately got out and went after us. We ran in another direction, but as we neared the end of that street, there were more police vehicles awaiting us. We were lucky to find one dead-end valley, where we could hide in a container. While that was enough to fool them into thinking we vanished into thin air and so leave us alone, we all knew that this was only temporary.  
"Is this really the extent of Earth's law enforcement?" Maen asked.  
"It's the early nineties." I remarked.  
"What got them turned against us anyway?" the Doctor asked, "First a man with a warrant to look inside the Tardis, then the police setting a perimeter around it, and now they're acting like we're wanted criminals?"  
Almost as if to answer our question, my phone rang. But since it was the Doctor who had it, he answered. As soon as he recognized the voice, he turned on the speaker: "Let this be a demonstration of our power. Unless you give us what we want, we will send the police after you again."  
"Listen to me." the Doctor replied, "Even if I wanted to give you what I want, I can't."  
"And why is that?" Toby asked.  
"There is only one place where you can find another Tardis, and that's my home planet." the Doctor replied, "But they are at war right now. So unless you want to enter a war zone..."  
"We have no problem with war zones." Toby replied, "We have seen many more, past, present and future. We have even seen the Ancient Romans fighting a war with soldiers from the first World War."  
"Don't remind me." the Doctor said, which had me confused, "But have you ever seen a war that affects the very fabric of time and space? That if it goes on like it does, it may cause the destruction of the universe?"  
The look that appeared on Maen's face pretty much summed up what I was thinking. So there was a war going on somewhere, and yet the Doctor wasn't there to fight it? He risked his life, and ours, to stop the war between the Cylons and the Colonials, he stopped the Jedi from using the Force too much, and yet he's not stopping his own people from tearing the universe apart?  
"Hang on one minute." Toby said, and followed this with static.  
"Doc?" I had my brows raised.  
"I know what you're thinking." he replied, "If the fate of the universe hangs in the balance through that war I just mentioned, why am I not fighting it?"  
"The thought crossed my mind." I replied.  
"Actually, I was wondering how your people could possibly be involved in such a severe war." Maen said.  
"You're both right in thinking that." the Doctor admitted, "My people were among the oldest and wisest in the universe. They would have avoided a war like this if they could."  
"So what happened?" Maen asked.  
Before the Doctor could say anything at all, something moved underneath the garbage. We all looked, and to our wonder, something crawled out. It looked like a man, but with a white beard and a funny hat. It almost looked like a gnome.  
"Hello." it said, with a voice similar to Toby's, "Please follow me."  
It then returned to where it came from. Not sure what to think of this, I didn't do anything. But the Doctor soon enough started to remove some of the garbage, until he stumbled upon what looked like a blue light.  
"What is that?" Maen asked.  
"It must be where that little man came from."  
"Think this is one of Toby's people?" I asked.  
"Must be." the Doctor answered, "Question is why?"  
"Why what?" Maen asked.  
"Why is he inviting us to follow him?" the Doctor explained, "If these people are who I think they are, they have done everything they could so they would never be found. Why are they letting us follow them into their homes?"  
"Everything will be explained as soon as you arrive." Toby answered. I had almost forgotten we were still on the phone with him.  
"What will happen to Emma while we're gone?" the Doctor asked.  
"As long as you behave, she'll be fine." was the answer.  
"Now I know how the Empire must have felt." Maen said.  
"How do you mean?" I asked her.  
"Remember that war that was fought in my galaxy a hundred years ago?" she asked and I nodded, "Helping us in winning that war was a race of people, who are about half our size, look like cuddly puppets, and were armed with nothing but rocks and catapults."  
I could see what she meant. Such a powerful empire was defeated by what sounded like an army of teddy bears. And now the Doctor was being controlled by beings that were even smaller. Still, the Doctor disconnected the call, then pressed a few buttons on my phone before giving it back to me. After that, he gave a key to Maen. I recognized it to be the key to the Tardis.  
"You two stay here, and see if you can find a way inside the Tardis again."  
"What?" both Maen and I shouted in unison.  
"Wherever they're taking me, I cannot leave the Tardis unprotected." the Doctor explained, "You two have to look after it, and see if you can take it back by any means necessary."  
"Any?" I questioned, "Even if it means changing history?"  
"If my theory is correct, you should not worry about that." the Doctor replied.  
"What theory?" I asked, but the Doctor had already crawled into that blue light, which then vanished.  
"Hate it when he's being so vague." I grumbled.  
"So, what do you suppose we do?" Maen asked.  
"What are you looking at me for?" I questioned in return.  
"You know this planet better than me."  
"But I don't know these Little People." I replied, "I have no idea about the extent of their powers. For all we know, anything we do now will alert them of... whatever plan we cook up."  
"Maybe." Maen agreed, "But if the Doctor is with them, he'll probably find a way to leave them too preoccupied to bother with us."  
I sighed: "Nice to see you're being confident for both of us."


	7. Chapter 7

We left the container, and were back in the dark alley. Maen started toward the direction of the Tardis, but I stopped her: "Wait."  
Maen sighed: "You heard the Doctor, we have to get back to the Tardis by all means necessary."  
"But if we just walk out on the streets, the police will catch us long before we can make it."  
This convinced Maen to not go anywhere: "So what do you suggest?"  
I looked around. In the movies, there usually is a fire escape, which would allow us to climb up to the roof, and we could go on from there. Of course, those movies were American, and we weren't in America.  
"If I could use the force, I would cloud some of their minds and have them take us to the Tardis." Maen said.  
"Wait, that's it!" I told her.  
"I just told you, I can't do that." Maen repeated.  
"No." I understood that, "But if we can convince them that we're one of their own, it would give us more freedom."  
"And how do you propose we do that?" Maen asked.  
"If we could somehow stop one car, take out the cops inside, take their uniforms, they'll think we're cops too, and even help us."  
"Sounds like a plan." Maen agreed.  
"The only question is, how do we stop one car?" I brought up.  
Maen needed but one second to think about it: "By giving them exactly what they want.

After Maen explained her plan to me, all we could do was wait in the alley for a car to drive by. Of course I had to explain to her that there is a very specific way of recognizing a police car, and that's by its flickering lights. Unfortunately, she would jump at the sight of a red light, which belonged to an ambulance. It was funny, in away. I had spent so much time with the Doctor, who seemed to know so much about my own planet, even though he's not actually from my planet. I was so used to this, I half expected Maen to be the same. Eventually, a police car drove by, and Maen jumped out of the alley. Even if the cops in the car didn't see her, she made sure they did when she activated her light-saber. This drew their attention. They stopped their car, stepped out and ran toward her. Maen ran back into the alley, but that only made them angry. The took their guns out of their holsters and started firing at her. Maen stopped, but not before she was already in the darker part of the alley. It surprised me at first that they had missed, but then, the police is supposed to fire warning shots first. The cops march into the alley, right past me, as I was hiding behind the container so they couldn't see me. I got up from behind the container, hoping I could knock them out, but before I could do anything, Maen had already attacked the two men with her light-saber. She did something to them, which caused them to cry out in agony. They turned around as they screamed, so I could see what happened. They weren't holding their guns anymore, but that was because where there should be hands, there were now what looked like... empty space? I should be shocked that she would cut their hands off, but when I noticed there was empty space where there should at least be blood blood spurting out, that gave me a different type of shock.  
"Don't humans of this planet bleed?" Maen asked me.  
"They do." I replied, as calm as I could.  
With this, she swung her saber again. This time, after one fell swing, the men's heads seemed to fall off their shoulders. As horrifying as this was supposed to look, much like with the hands, where I was supposed to see blood, bone and muscles, there was nothing at all.  
"What are these men?" I wondered.  
"The Doctor had a theory about them, didn't he?" Maen reminded me.  
"He knew these people are skin over space?" I questioned.  
"Looks that way." Maen replied.  
Two moons, little people, and now empty people? What kind of world did we end up in?


	8. Chapter 8

Taking the clothes off the policemen sounds easy, but it really wasn't. Despite them being basically skin over air, they were heavier than they looked. Not to mention that what I consider to be normal mundane clothing, was completely alien to Maen. So we were wasting too much time just to get their clothes on. Needless to say that we hadn't even finished undressing them, and the police caught wind of what was going on. More blue lights started to flicker in our direction. Which told me and Maen to go into hiding. We didn't immediately have anywhere to go, though I did spot one door.  
"Maen, think you can break that lock?" I asked her.  
She activated her light-saber, stabbed it through the knob, and the door opened.  
"This answers your question?"  
I didn't answer. I just grabbed her arm and pulled her inside with me.

Upon entering, we immediately baricaded it with everything we could find. We even covered the hole that Maen made, so to make it look like the place is abandoned. Even so, we couldn't affort to just wait around and hope they won't come inside to look for us. Maen had to pull me away from the door, so we would run to the roof. From there, we looked down. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but judging from the looks on their faces and the fact that they vomited, they weren't exactly pleased with what they saw. Still, I noticed one policeman looking more confused than anything else. He would walk up to one other man, ask him something, pointing at the bodies, but the other man would just shrug. It didn't take long before he was escorted off the crime scene.  
"That was odd." I said.  
"Two of their own were killed, how else do you expect them to react?" Maen asked me.  
"Not that." I replied, "They just escorted one guy off the scene."  
"Because he was the most sickened?" Maen asked.  
"Didn't seem that way." I said.  
I kept looking at that man. He tried getting back on the scene, but nobody would let him. I pointed him out to Maen.  
"Call it a hunch, but he may be of some help to us." I told her.  
"Whatever you say." Maen replied, then walked a few steps back.  
"What are you doing?" I wondered.  
Before she would answer, she started running, until she reached the very edge of the roof, where she jumped, clean over the crime-scene below, and onto the roof across it. There, she ran to the edge of the roof again, where she could see the policeman. She ran to the other side of the roof, where she started climbing down. This left me on the roof, by myself. And already I saw some men trying the front door. This put me in a difficult position. While the distance between this roof and the next wasn't that great, I didn't think I had enough strength to jump across that little space. Sure, I've had some training, but it was nowhere near her level, and since I met the Doctor, I haven't been to any sort of gym, so I couldn't be sure my condition was quite what it should be. So I had to find another way off the roof. I looked to my left. The roof ran for a couple of meters, but there were other doors on the way. If I could reach that door, I should be able to get down from there. I ran as fast as I could, until I reached that door. Unfortunately it had no knob on the outside. Why didn't I think of that? I tried running into the door, but it didn't budge. I could try again, but that would cause too much noise, drawing the attention of the men below.  
"Why did you go over here?" I heard Maen's voice.  
I turned to look, and there she stood, carrying someone over her shoulder.  
"What did you just do?" I asked her.  
"I asked first." she replied.  
If we were gonna play this game, we'd be wasting too much time: "The cops are on their way up. I needed a new exit."  
"Why didn't you just follow me?" Maen looked genuinely surprised.  
"Look, none of that matters now." I told her, "Let's get through this."  
She shrugged: "All right."  
With her light-saber, she cut her way through that door, and we could run downstairs again. As we ran, I got a good look at the man she was carrying. He didn't wear his hat, not unless you count having it in his mouth as wearing it. He kept his left arm a strange sort of angle, but I soon saw why. He had himself handcuffed to her. I would guess that a woman falling from the sky just to grab hold of him was suspicious, so he tried to arrest her. Of course Maen wouldn't let him, so she fought back. And now the two were linked, whether they like it or not. But as soon as we reached the front door, I stopped Maen.  
"Wait, we can't go outside." I told her.  
She sighed: "Must you always change your mind like that?"  
"You don't understand." I said, "If we go out, carrying a policeman like that, we'd stand out too much."  
"Not my fault." she replied, "He tried to restrain me."  
If he's the source of the problems, then maybe I should try and explain the situation to him.  
"Put him down." I said.  
"Why?" Maen wondered.  
I growled: "We don't have time for twenty questions, just put him down!"  
Maen clicked her tongue, but she agreed to put him down. When he had his feet on the ground, I took his hat out of his mouth.  
"Who are you people?" he asked us.  
"That depends." I replied, "When you saw those bodies, what did you see?"  
"Are you two behind them?" he seemed a little more confident that time."  
"Answer him!" Maen yanked at his arm, through their cuffs.  
"I saw..." he hesitated, "I saw... two bodies."  
"Did you see any blood?" I asked, and he didn't say anything, "Or was it just empty space?"  
His eyes widened: "You could see it too?"  
"What do you mean, too? Of course we could." Maen replied.  
"None of the other policemen could." he explained, "They all vomited at the sight of blood, but I couldn't see anything."  
I almost wished the Doctor was here, as he'd found this to be more interesting than anything else.  
"In that case..." I answered his earlier question, "... we may be allies. Now, will you take the cuffs off my friend?"  
He looked at Maen, then at the cuffs, at me, and Maen again. Clearly, he was weighing out his options. He knew we couldn't be trusted, or rather that we shouldn't be trusted, but he knew that we may be his only hope in this case, whatever it may be. He took the key out of his pocket and released her.  
"Good." I said, "Now, do you have a car we could use?"  
"We can't use an official vehicle now." he said, "After that scene I made earlier, they wouldn't trust me with one of their own vehicles."  
"Can you borrow us some of your uniforms, then?" I asked.  
"You're still on that?" Maen couldn't believe it.  
"Like it or not, we still can't just walk up to the Tardis without being seen."  
"Tardis?" the cop asked.  
"We'll explain when we get to it..." I replied, after which I looked at his nametag, "... Cooper."


	9. Chapter 9

As we instructed Cooper, he went to the station, where he would pick up two uniforms for us. It took him a while, but when he finally returned to us, he was driving his own car. He opened a window, telling us to get in, pointing behind himself. We did so, and found the uniforms we asked him. Once we told him where to take us, he started driving. As he drove, Maen and I tried putting the uniforms on while driving. Seeing as it would take too long to take off our clothes first and then put our uniforms on, we decided to wear our regular clothes under the uniforms.  
"Can you finally tell me what's going on?" Cooper asked us.  
"What makes you think we know more than you do?" Maen told him, "We've only just arrived here ourselves."  
"Arrived?" this seemed like an interesting choice of words for Cooper, "So you just fell into this world too?"  
"That's one way of putting it." I told him.  
"We were looking at a huge eye. Next thing we know, we're in a world with little people." Maen replied.  
I couldn't see Cooper's face, but his head stopped moving, which told me he was trying to make sense of what Maen just said.  
"And there are two moons in the sky which nobody else sees." I quickly added.  
Cooper exhaled in relief: "Finally, other people who see it too. My cousin visited me last week, and she would just look at me like I'm an alien or something."  
"Isn't that what you all are?" Maen asked.  
Before Cooper could ask what that could mean, I already told her: "In many ways, we all are, including you."  
Cooper nodded. I would guess he just assumed that Maen isn't exactly right in the head. It wasn't right, but until I could demonstrate what she really meant, we needed him to trust us.  
"In more ways than one, Gwen was acting like an alien herself." Cooper said.  
"How do you mean?" I asked him.  
"For one, she didn't have her Swansea accent." Cooper explained, "She's always the playful one, but this time it was like she had arthritis. I don't know who she was, but the Gwen that visited me wasn't my cousin."  
A somewhat clumsy way for him to tell us his cousin is named Gwen. I actually thought he was talking about his wife, girlfriend, or at the very least his sister. I didn't know he was still talking about his cousin.  
"We're here." he stops his car.  
"What do you mean?" Maen couldn't understand, "Where's the Tardis?"  
"The what?" Cooper asked.  
"Just a guess." I said, "You parked us out of sight, didn't you?"  
"Of course." he explained, "If they see me arriving with my own car, they might realize I'm not here on official business."  
"Are you ready?" I asked Maen, as I finished buttoning my shirt.  
"As I'll ever be." Maen replied, while she didn't look nearly as ready. Her shirt's sleeves were wrapped around her neck, her hat was worn backwards, and she wore her belt on her shoulder.  
"Better wear this over that." I pointed to her jacket, "And zip it shut."  
"Why?"  
"Trust me, it'll look less suspicious."

As soon as we were finished, the three of us got out of the car. We let Cooper guide us to where the Tardis stood. It still had that tape surrounding it, and was still guarded by the police. Of course, with Cooper there, he just needed to explain to them there's something he needs to check out, and they let us through. As soon as we were through their barricade, Maen took the key out, and placed it in the Tardis' lock.  
"Hey, what are you doing!?" one of the guards shouted at us.  
"Don't mind them." I whispered to Maen, who then more hurriedly unlocked the door and opened it. As quickly as we could, the three of us entered. But even while we were inside, the guards would still chase us. Maen and Cooper immediately turned around and tried to hold the door shut. I didn't help, because I noticed a weird light coming from my pocket. The same pocket where I kept my phone. I looked, and found my phone, glowing. Why did it do that? Was it because I was in the Tardis? It reminded me that the Doctor did press a few buttons before he gave it back to me. If it's connected, then maybe the answer lay somewhere on the console. With no other idea as to what to do, I made my way to the console. Sure enough, there was a slot there, which was also glowing. I inserted my phone into that slot, and almost immediately it activated the machines. The Tardis started making its whooshing sounds.  
"Did they just give up?" Cooper asked, "They're not very good at their..."  
Cooper stopped, and as I turned, I could see why. He didn't take the time to look at the interior before, but he did now.  
"I thought we were inside a box?" he questioned.  
"That's only the outside." I replied.  
"Never mind that." Maen spoke, "Where's Emma?"  
"Emma?" Cooper wondered.  
"Obviously not in this room." I answered.  
"Ah! Precisely on schedule." I heard the Doctor's voice coming from behind Cooper and Maen.  
"Doctor!" Maen was happy to see him.  
"Who are you?" both Cooper and the Doctor asked in unison.  
"He helped us get here." I explained to the Doctor, "Like us, he's not from this... world, whatever it is."  
"It's another dimension, actually." the Doctor answered, but he didn't say more, as he locked the door behind him and ran to the console, where he pressed a few more buttons.  
"Dimension?" Cooper couldn't understand, "Just who are you people?"  
"More important than who I am, is who are you?" the Doctor replied, "Or rather, who are you to the Little People?"  
"Little People? I know nothing about any Little People." Cooper answered.  
"Doc, what is going on?" I asked him.  
"All in good time." the Doctor replied, "First we've got to save Emma."  
"Save her? You mean she's nowhere in here?" Maen sounded concerned.  
"Afraid not." the Doctor replied, "They took her, hoping I would cooperate."  
This reminded me. When we first encountered these Little People, they somehow had found their way inside the Tardis. Now that we were all here, why aren't they doing anything? For that matter, where did the Doctor program my phone to tell the Tardis to land to? I opened my mouth to ask, but the Tardis already stopped running. Immediately, the Doctor ran back to the door, unlocked it, and walked out. Cooper, Maen and I watched as he entered what looked like a green room. At the far corner of the room, was Emma, who had green clamps that held her restrained to the wall. All the Doctor had to do was point his sonic screwdriver at it, and they'd loosened themselves. Unconscious, Emma fell in the Doctor's arms. His cop's instinct warning him, Cooper ran to help the Doctor carry Emma inside. As soon as they were back, the Doctor locked the door again.  
"Alright, the Tardis' shields are working overtime now, so these people wouldn't be able to enter again." the Doctor explained, "Unfortunately, it drains some much-needed power from the Tardis, so I'll have to keep my explanation brief."  
"Good! Like how can this thing be bigger on the inside?" Cooper asked.  
"I meant explaining what this dimension is, and how we'll be getting home." the Doctor clarified.  
Cooper groaned, but the Doctor ignored it. At long last, we'll get to hear what this world is, who these Little People are, and why there are people who have no organs in their bodies.


	10. Chapter 10

"The Little People are known in Irish folklore as Faeries." the Doctor explained, "To them, they're just magical creatures, with powers beyond all comprehension. But in reality, they can bend time to their whim."  
"Like those creatures you mentioned before?" I remembered, "Who can play with time like it was plasticine?"  
"Exactly like them." the Doctor replied, "It may even be the case that they are punishing Cooper here for something he's going to do, or a relative of his will do, which explains why he's here."  
"And where is here? You haven't explained that yet." Cooper interrupted.  
The Doctor needed some time to come up with the best way to explain it: "Imagine time to be like a film-reel. Now a reel, in the old days, was only image, no sound. That had to be recorded on a separate medium. So when the two are played together, the sound and image weren't always in sync. And that is what this world is. A separate dimension, that is out of sync with our own."  
Cooper needed some time to let this sink in, while Maen seemed bored with the explanation. I decided to ask: "Where do these Little People... these Faeries come in?"  
"They decided to use this dimension as their own personal playground, where they can play with the heads of whoever they send in there." the Doctor answered, "Of course, since the people sent in shouldn't become aware that they are in another dimension, they tried their best to copy our dimension."  
That would explain the Empty-Space people. If they're just copies of the people from the real world, and we have no need to see the inside of any body, of course they'd be empty on the inside.  
"So that's why Gwen was acting so strange." Cooper told Maen and me, "It wasn't really her, it was a copy."  
"So glad we have that out of the way." Maen didn't mean that.  
"And why is there a second moon?" I asked.  
"This is what keeps this dimension in place." the Doctor explained, "As long as that moon is there, this dimension will keep on existing."  
"So destroy that moon, and the Little People would be no problem?" Maen sounded more enthused this time.  
"It's not as simple as that." the Doctor answered, "The Tardis' powers are being drained just to keep them out. And even if I find a way to bring this moon out of orbit, if it crashes on Earth, it will cause a cataclysmic event that no one will survive. And in addition to that, the Faeries will use everything in their power to bring the second moon back into orbit."  
"How do you know all that?" Maen asked.  
"Because I have seen their power." the Doctor explained, "I have seen how they control the people on this planet, how they manipulate the few who are real humans, how they even managed to establish cults to further enforce their power, and yet manage to do all that without anyone knowing about them. They had someone try to expose them once, and it didn't make a dent to their power."  
This sounded dangerous enough, so I asked: "Can't we just... I don't know, open the Eye of Harmony again and get out."  
"They will detect it if I tried." the Doctor explained, "They probably already detected me saving Emma."  
Maen sighed loudly: "If only I could access the Force again."  
"The Force?" this was new to Cooper.  
"How would that help us?" I asked.  
"I could use that power to manipulate the Little People, perhaps even have them relinquish their hold on those empty Earthlings, so we can use them ourselves."  
"Earthlings?" Cooper scoffed.  
"Right now, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea." the Doctor said.  
"But didn't you say I can't do any of that now, because it was tearing the universe apart?" Maen questioned.  
"Years ago, sure." the Doctor replied, "But by now the universe has restored itself a little. And if only one of you uses it, it won't cause that much damage."  
"Sounds like a plan." I replied, "But didn't you hypnotize her and all Jedi so they can't even remember how to do any of those things?"  
"What are you people talking about?" Cooper couldn't understand any of this.  
"I merely closed the door on that part of their brain." the Doctor explained, "All I have to do is open it."  
"Can you do that?" Maen asked, her face lighting up even brighter than two moons put together.  
"Excuse me, when will anyone answer any of my questions?" Cooper interrupted.  
"When there's time." an expression that must have little to no meaning to a Time Lord, and yet here there was one who used it.  
"Mr. Cooper, can you stay here and keep an eye on Emma?" the Doctor asked Cooper.  
"Eh... Ok." he didn't know what else to do.  
"If there's any problem, just press redial on that phone." the Doctor pointed at the phone on the Tardis' console, which (as far as I knew) last dialed the number to my phone.  
"You two, come along." the Doctor told me and Maen, and so we followed him.

We didn't know what the Doctor was planning. Maen did ask him, on our way to where we were going, how he'd "open the door" as he put it. He replied he'd do that easily, but it wouldn't be enough. He needed a more direct way for her to connect to the Little People afterward. And as we were going through the Tardis corridors, I recognized the road we were taking. It was getting progressively older. Medieval, I should say.  
"We're heading back to the Eye Of Harmony?" I asked.  
"That is correct." the Doctor replied, "We need Maen to access the Force. And there is no better place in the world to do that more directly."  
In my mind, I was wondering who was more dangerous. The Little People, or the Jedi combined with the Time Lords. I didn't have much time to think more of it, because we had soon arrived at the door, beyond which lay the Eye. We walked through that door, after which the Doctor motioned to us to walk toward the Eye.  
"You've done it before, I'm sure you know what to do now." the Doctor said, with a slight hint of malcontent.  
I suppose on the one hand it was a good thing that we saved him the time to explain, but on the other it was also a fact that we wouldn't be in this dimension if I wasn't so curious to check out the rest of the Tardis. Like before, I pulled one pole out of its place and looked into the light that was hidden underneath it. Again, the Eye opened, and again there was a projection. Not of those old men I've seen before. No, this time it was of a bearded, balding man, who had this expression on his face that wasn't just patronizing, but somewhat frightening. It was as though I was looking at the most horrible man in the world. I looked at the Doctor, who froze at the sight of that projection, his eyes wide, and his mouth wobbling. Did he know who this man is? Before I could ask him anything, he had already placed his hands on Maen's head. He was trying this mind-melt thing again? And without warning her first too, because Maen protested as soon as his hands were on her head. But that ended almost as quickly, as she closed her eyes, and relaxed. Things seemed to quiet down just then, when my phone rang. I rushed to answer it, but it stopped ringing after one ring. The only person I could think of that could try to reach me was in the Tardis console room. But if something was wrong, why would he ring only once? Unless...  
"Doc, better hurry up." I told him.  
"I'm... trying..." he replied, "I... may have... overdone it... just a little..."  
Overdone it? Did he mean that his hypnosis was so strong that even he couldn't undo it? As I was about to ask, I saw something move at the door. It was small, and not alone. Several shadows were finding their way to the Eye Of Harmony, which (since it had my attention again) had started to project distorted pictures. And through those pictures, the Little People jumped. I got up from where I was sitting, hoping I could do something, but the whole floor was flooded with these Little People. No sooner had that image imprinted itself in my head, and I heard Maen inhale deeply. I looked, and I saw she had opened her eyes, widely, like she had just woken up from a nightmare. She stretched out her arms, pulled her head out of the Doctor's hands, and let out a cry, much faster than I could see her open her mouth to even make such a sound. Somehow, the cry was so loud, it did more to my eyes than to my ears. Everything started to brighten up, like everything and everyone was suddenly some source of light. They kept getting brighter, until everything was white, and I could hear no more.


	11. Chapter 11

Sight. I could see again. But what I saw was something my head couldn't wrap around. I was in the room that had the Eye Of Harmony, and I was holding the pole, and was looking at the light that was hidden underneath it, but not directly at it. I looked at the Eye, and noticed that it was closed. I looked around me, and noticed there was no one here. Not the Doctor, or even the Little People. I was by myself. I took my phone out of my pocket, and dialed the Tardis' number. After a few rings, the Doctor picked up.  
"Hello?" he said, "Can I help you with something?"  
"It's me, Doc." I replied.  
"Oh!" he recognized my voice, "Where are you?"  
In a reflex, I would have given an honest answer. But I had more pressing questions to ask: "Is Cooper there?"  
"Cooper?" the Doctor genuinely sounded like he didn't know the name, "Who is that?"  
"Who is it, Doctor?" a voice sounded from the background. Though it was lower in volume, it was definitely Emma.  
So I'm at the Eye Of Harmony, but I'm alone. The Doctor doesn't know who Cooper is, and Emma is awake. Could this be the moment in time before I looked into that light and ended up opening the Eye? Before all this trouble started? If so, then I knew exactly what I had to do. I placed the pole back in its rightful place, and decided to leave the room.  
"Sorry about bothering you." I apologized to the Doctor.  
"That's quite all right." the Doctor said, "You make for a nice change, after trying to explain EVERY single thing to Cruchot."  
I smiled. As far as the Doctor was concerned, we only just had our adventure in Saint-Tropez. This confirmed what I was thinking.  
"You haven't answered my question, though." the Doctor said, "Where are you?"  
"Oh, don't worry, I'm in the Tardis." I told him.  
"Don't worry?" the Doctor raised his voice, "There are some rooms in the Tardis you don't want to visit."  
Don't I know it, I thought to myself: "I'll be in the console room soon."  
I shut my phone, and made to leave the room. As I left, I thought of closing the door behind me, but the door seemed to be doing that on its own.  
"For all of our sakes, we better not talk about this to anyone. Especially not the Doctor." I told... nobody in particular.  
This was when something hit me. I wasn't alone the first time around. There was someone with me. In fact, before I returned to this point in time, she was the last person I remember seeing. Maen. Where has she gone to? She wasn't with the Doctor, or else I would have heard her over the phone. Still, just to be sure, I ran as fast as I could to the console room.

As I was getting nearer to the console room, I could hear the Doctor talk: "There is the planet Tersurus, where some of the most enlightened people that have ever inhabited the universe live."  
"You mean Thesaurus?" I recognized Emma's voice.  
I entered the room immediately. I looked around it, and found everything was as it should be. I found the two people that I expected to find there, the Doctor and Emma. But the one I was hoping to see was nowhere in sight.  
"There you are." Emma said, "If you didn't want to join on our little..."  
"Where's Maen?" I asked.  
"I'm sorry, who?" Emma wondered.  
"Maen Solo?" I elaborated, but then I realized Emma didn't know her full name.  
"My friend, there is no one here but us." the Doctor assured me.  
This couldn't be right. If it wasn't for Maen, the Doctor would not even have known about the problem in her home galaxy. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have been able to stop the Autons in Tel Aviv. How could he not remember her at all? Could it be...?  
"Doc, remember the Little People?"  
"Little People?" Emma snorted.  
She was the one who told us first about it, and she's the one snorting?  
"I didn't ask you!" I snapped back.  
The Doctor had that worried look on his face again. In this case, it could only be a good thing. It meant that he recognized there was a problem. His lips stretched out, and his eyes widened a little, changing his look from worried to indifferent: "Ah, don't worry, you must have had a dream."  
A dream? How could he say that? As soon as that question came to mind, I remembered, this all started when Emma had her dream, didn't it? But then I thought about how little that explained. No, this still didn't make sense, even to our standards.  
Emma giggled: "Happens all the time to everyone."  
I opened my mouth to retort, but the Doctor stopped me: "You know what? I know the perfect destination for all of us. It looks like we can use a little rest."  
What I could use is someone, or something if necessary, that would give me a straight answer. Where is Maen? And what happened to her?

**THE END**

**? ? ?  
**


End file.
